Editing Constantinian shift

{{Short description|Political and theological changes}}
[[Image:Raphael-Constantine at Milvian Bridge.jpg|thumb|''Battle of the Milvian Bridge'', [[Raphael]], Vatican Rooms. The artist depicted the troops of Constantine bearing the ''[[labarum]]''.]]
The '''Constantinian shift''' was, according to some [[Christian theology|theologians]] and [[Ancient history|historians of antiquity]], a set of political and theological changes that took place during the [[Christianity in the 4th century|4th-century]] under the leadership of Emperor [[Constantine the Great]]. [[Rodney Clapp]] claims that the shift or change started in the year 200.<ref>{{cite book|
title=A Peculiar People| url=https://archive.org/details/peculiarpeoplech0000clap| url-access=registration|publisher=InterVarsity Press|first=Rodney|last=Clapp|year=1996|page=[https://archive.org/details/peculiarpeoplech0000clap/page/23 23]|quote=What might be called the Constantinian shift began around the year 200 and took more than two hundred years to grow and unfold to full bloom.}}</ref> The term was popularized by the [[Mennonite]] theologian [[John H. Yoder]].<ref>e.g. in {{cite book|
title=The Future of Theology: Essays in Honor of Jurgen Moltmann|publisher = Eerdmanns|year=1996|
editor=Miroslav Volf |editor2=Carmen Krieg |editor3=Thomas Kucharz |first = John H.|last = Yoder|chapter = Is There Such a Thing as Being Ready for Another Millennium?|page=65|quote=The most impressive transitory change underlying our common experience, one that some thought was a permanent lunge forward in salvation history, was the so-called Constantinian shift.}}</ref> He claims that the change was not just freedom from persecution but an alliance between the [[State church of the Roman Empire|State]] and the Church that led to a kind of [[Caesaropapism]]. The claim that there ever was a Constantinian shift has been disputed; [[Peter Leithart]] argues that there was a "brief, ambiguous 'Constantinian moment' in the fourth century", but that there was "no permanent, epochal 'Constantinian shift{{'"}}.<ref>[[Peter Leithart]], ''[[Defending Constantine: The Twilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom]]'', p 287.</ref>

==The Shift==
[[File:Nicaea icon.jpg|thumb|Icon depicting [[Constantine the Great|the Emperor Constantine]] (centre) and the [[bishop]]s of the [[First Council of Nicaea]] holding the [[Nicene Creed]]]]
[[Constantine the Great]] (reigned 306–337) adopted [[Christianity]] as his system of belief after his victory at the [[Battle of Milvian Bridge]] in 312.<ref>Lactantius XLIV, 5</ref><ref>Eusebius XXVII–XXXII</ref><ref>Brown 2006, 60.</ref> The following year, 313, he issued the [[Edict of Milan]] with his eastern colleague, [[Licinius]]. The edict legalised Christianity alongside other religions in the [[Roman Empire]]. 
In 325 the [[First Council of Nicaea]] signalled consolidation of Christianity under an orthodoxy endorsed by Constantine. While this did not make other Christian groups outside the adopted definition illegal, dissenting [[Arianism|Arian bishops]] were initially exiled. But Constantine reinstated [[Arius]] just before the heresiarch died in 336 and exiled the Orthodox [[Athanasius of Alexandria]] from 335 to 337. In 380 Emperor [[Theodosius I]] made Christianity the Roman Empire's [[state religion|official religion]] (see [[State church of the Roman Empire]]). In 392 Theodosius passed legislation prohibiting all [[paganism|pagan]] cultic worship.<ref>Theodosian Code, XVI.1.2</ref>

During the 4th century, however, there was no real unity between church and state: in the course of the [[Arian controversy]], [[Arianism|Arian]] or semi-Arian emperors exiled leading Trinitarian bishops, such as [[Athanasius]] (335, 339, 356, 362, 365), [[Hilary of Poitiers]] (356), and [[Gregory of Nyssa]] (374<ref>{{cite book | editor-last = Schaff | editor-first = Philip | editor-link = Philip Schaff | title = Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers | series = Second | volume = V. Gregory of Nyssa | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=E2NStO5kLqkC | access-date = 2012-12-16 | orig-year = 1893 | year = 2007 | publisher = Cosimo | isbn = 978-1-60206516-1 | page = vii | quote = 374[:] Gregory is exiled under Valens}}</ref>); just as leading Arian and [[Anomoean]] theologians such as [[Aëtius (theologian)|Aëtius]] (fl. 350) also suffered exile.

Towards the end of the century, Bishop [[Ambrose of Milan]] made the powerful Emperor [[Theodosius I]] (reigned 379–395) do penance for several months after the [[Massacre of Thessaloniki|massacre of Thessalonica]] (390) before admitting him again to the [[Eucharist]]. On the other hand, only a few years later, [[Chrysostom]], who as bishop of [[Constantinople]] criticized the excesses of the royal court, was eventually banished (403) and died (407) while traveling to his place of exile.

==Theological implications==
{{Separation of church and state in the history of the Catholic Church|expanded = historical controversies}}

Critics of state-aligned Christianity often point to the ascension of Constantine as the beginning of [[Caesaropapism]]: according to this critique, the official Christianity of the Roman state rapidly became a religious and metaphysical justification for the existence, exercise, and expansion of worldly political power, ultimately facilitating earthly Christian empire both for Rome and its successors across [[Christendom]]. Similar criticisms are levied by [[Christian anarchism|Christian anarchists]], who claim that the Constantinian shift triggered the [[Great Apostasy]] by transforming the religion into a means for preserving the ruling elite's power and justifying violence.<ref name=CA>{{cite book|first=Alexandre |last=Christoyannopoulos |author-link=Alexandre Christoyannopoulos |title=New Perspectives on Anarchism |pages=149–168 |year=2010 |publisher=[[Lexington Books]] |location=Lanham, Maryland |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/ChristianAnarchism |chapter=Christian Anarchism: A Revolutionary Reading of the Bible}}</ref>

[[Augustine of Hippo]], who originally had rejected violence in religious matters, later justified it theologically against those he considered heretics, such as the [[Donatists]], who themselves violently harassed their opponents.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://evangelica.de/articles/the-donatists-and-their-relation-to-church-and-state/|title=The Donatists and Their Relation to Church and State « Biographia Evangelica|access-date=2019-06-04|archive-date=2019-12-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191227014831/http://evangelica.de/articles/the-donatists-and-their-relation-to-church-and-state/|url-status=dead}}</ref> Before him, [[Athanasius]] believed that violence was justified in weeding out heresies that could damn all future Christians.<ref>Olson, 172</ref> He felt that any means was justified in repressing [[Arianism|Arian]] belief.<ref>Barnes, 230.</ref>  In 385, [[Priscillian]], a bishop in Spain, was the first Christian to be executed for heresy, though the most prominent church leaders rejected this verdict.

Theologians critical of the Constantinian shift also see it as the point at which membership in the Christian church became associated with a social concept of citizenship, rather than reflecting one's internal decisions and feelings. American theologian [[Stanley Hauerwas]] notes the shift as forming part of the foundation for the contemporary American conception of Christianity, one that is closely associated with [[patriotism]] and [[civil religion]].{{citation needed|date=January 2021}}

==See also==
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
* [[Antichrist#Pre-Reformation Western Church accusers|Antichrist]]
* [[Constantinianism]]
* [[Christianity in the Roman Empire]]
* [[Divine right of kings#Reformation-period conceptions|Divine right of kings]]
* ''[[Donation of Constantine]]''
* [[Erastianism]]
* [[Great Apostasy]]
* [[Historicism (Christianity)]]
* [[Persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire]]
* [[Sacralism]]
{{div col end}}

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

==Further reading==
* [[Timothy Barnes (classicist)|Timothy Barnes]], ''Constantine and Eusebius'', 1981
* ''Theodosian Code'', [[Henry Bettenson]], ed., Documents of the Christian Church, (London: Oxford University Press, 1943), p.&nbsp;31. see: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/theodcodeXVI.html {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070227120555/http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/theodcodeXVI.html |date=2007-02-27 }}
* [[Peter Brown (historian)|Peter Brown]], ''The Rise of Western Christendom'' (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2003),60.
* James Bulloch, ''From Pilate to Constantine'', 1981
* [[Eusebius of Caesarea]], ''Life of Constantine'', Library of Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers, 2nd series (New York: Christian Literature Co., 1990), Vol I, 489–91. see: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/conv-const.html
* Alistair Kee, ''Constantine Versus Christ'', 1982
* Lactantius, Lucius Caecilius Firmianus, ''On the manner in which the persecutors died'' (English translation of ''De Mortibus Persecutorum'') see: http://www.intratext.com/IXT/ENG0296/_P18.HTM
* [[Ramsay MacMullen]], ''Christianising the Roman Empire'', 1984
* [[Roger E. Olson]], ''The Story of Christian Theology'', 1999

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20040506183821/http://www.angelfire.com/ky/dodone/SCon.html Social Constantinianism] - an [[evangelicalism|Evangelical]] perspective on the Constantinian shift
*[http://www.orthodoxresearchinstitute.org/articles/patrology/heroes_of_4th_century_pt2.htm Basil's Struggle with Arianism after Constantine.]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20081026010432/http://www.fourthcentury.com/index.php/imperial-laws-chart Timeline of Fourth-Century Roman Imperial Laws showing the Constantinian shift]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Constantinian Shift}}
[[Category:Constantine the Great and Christianity|Shift]]
[[Category:Ecclesiology]]
[[Category:Christian terminology]]
[[Category:4th-century Christianity]]